Twitter users get more freedom to report spam and fake accounts

Twitter has started giving its users more freedom to report suspicious and fake accounts. The move, it appears, aims to intensify the ongoing Twitter crackdown on online spamming activities in the run-up to the November 6 US mid-term elections. Announcing the new measure through its official safety account, Twitter said it would not allow any attempts to manipulate or disrupt its service. “Activity that attempts to manipulate or disrupt Twitter’s service is not allowed. We remove this when we see it,” @TwitterSafety posted on the micro-blogging site on Wednesday. READ | Twitter lost 9 million users in Q3: Report “You can now specify what type of spam you’re seeing when you report, including fake accounts,” added the post.

Activity that attempts to manipulate or disrupt Twitter’s service is not allowed. We remove this when we see it. You can now specify what type of spam you’re seeing when you report, including fake accounts. pic.twitter.com/GN9NKw2Qyn — Twitter Safety (@TwitterSafety) October 31, 2018

The Twitter Safety post demonstrates in a video how users can flag tweets and mark them as “suspicious or spam” and further categorise them as “potentially malicious or harmful” . The tool is part of the steps Twitter has taken so far to check malicious activities on its platform. Twitter had said in July that it had purged about 70 million accounts in May and June of this year for spamming or malicious behaviour. In August, the site suspended 284 accounts for engaging in “coordinated manipulation”.